Airborne arsenic dust from Allied Chemical was killing Baltimore City residents near its Race Street pesticide plant, according to research published in 1974 that never reached city leaders.
While a city panel was studying arsenic in the soil of Swann Park, Dr. Genevieve Matanoski of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health found that the airborne arsenic was killing seven times as many men living near the plant from lung cancer as in the rest of Baltimore. Her research was part of a workshop by the American Public Health Association and was published by the journal Environmental Research.
“We did find one document indicating that at least one member of thestate government and of the Kepone Task Force (studying arsenic in the soil) was aware of Dr. Matanoski?s research,” Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein wrote in a letter to the Mayor Monday.
The letter was the latest report of a new task force investigating decades of corporate cover-ups and mishandling of public health information relating to Allied Chemical and Swann Park.
The Swann Park Task Force was formed earlier this year when Honeywell Inc. released boxes of documents from Allied Chemical to state and city leaders.
The documents showed Allied was aware of the extent of arsenic contamination in the neighboring ball fields and concealed that information from the Kepone Task Force.
Sharfstein said ground-based arsenic contamination is not likely dangerous to any of the school or recreation groups that have used Swann Park, in south Baltimore.
Airborne arsenic is another issue, however, and Monday?s letter indicated that Allied officials were concerned about “added extensive publication and pressure for further environmental studies,” following Matanoski?s research.
Although Matanoski presented her findings to the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970s, that information was not relayed to city leaders or the original task force, according to Monday?s letter.
